posted at 5:01 pm on November 17, 2013 by Jazz Shaw

Governor Scott Walker took some time out for an appearance on ABC’s This Week and faced the inevitable questions about the stable of GOP candidates in 2016. Give him credit for one thing… he didn’t go out of his way to be subtle.

“I think it’s got to be an outsider. I think both the presidential and the vice presidential nominee should either be a former or current governor, people who have done successful things in their states, who have taken on big reforms, who are ready to move America forward,” Walker responded when asked by Karl to describe the “ideal Republican presidential candidate in 2016.”

During the interview in Madison, Wis., Karl asked the governor specifically about Rubio, Cruz and Paul. Walker implied they were all too closely associated with the Beltway to be the ideal nominee.

“All good guys, but … it’s got to be somebody who’s viewed as being exceptionally removed from Washington,” the Wisconsin governor said.

He also managed to rule out Paul Ryan, as you’ll see in the video below, but did point out that he really “loves” him.

Is this a serious pitch to test the waters? It never hurts to have some buzz going whether you really plan to run or not… particularly when you have a new book out that you need to pitch. But the other thing Walker and any supporters have to keep in mind is that he still has a potentially tough reelection battle coming up. It’s not that he shouldn’t win that one, but it’s going to be a bruising battle and a loss would effectively take him out of 2016 consideration.

In the end, governors have historically done better in presidential bids than members of Congress (or complete outsiders) but nothing is really a disqualifying mark in those terms. Still, he may indeed have his eyes on the prize already. Here’s the video so you can judge for yourself.

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We have elected three sitting Senators without executive experience and one sitting Representative in our history.

Garfield was elected from the House, but the federal government was still relatively small in that pre-“progressive” era. He did begin the process of reforming the bureaucracy before being murdered by his doctors’ incompetence after an assassination attempt.

But the three Senators were rather unsuccessful. Harding was surrounded by cronies whose scandals rocked his Administration early. Kennedy bungled the Soviet summit and the Bay of Pigs, leading to the Soviets perceiving weakness and precipitating crises around the world to test him. Obama, well, see for yourself.

There is a reason why we nearly always elect Governors or Generals or Vice-Presidents (who rightly or wrongly are seen as understudies) and almost never Senators or Representatives: they have the administrative experience.

Now, more than ever, we need that in a President. Making a great speech is NOT a qualification.

I don’t know if there’s a hard and fast rule. The primary campaign of Rick Perry highlighted a flaw with Governors: they could be staggeringly unaware of what’s going on in the rest of the country.

Some legislators probably are qualified to run for President. These would include members of the congressional leadership, or chairmen of key committees, like Paul Ryan. Although it would still be better to have some executive experience, too.

The ideal would be someone with some executive experience and some Washington experience. Chris Christie as a former US Attorney might count. Mike Pence, Bobby Jindal and John Kasich are all Congressmen turned Governors, an ideal combination, although I have major concerns about electability for all three.

I like Scott Walker, but I also think that he is the most overrated potential candidate for 2016. The right basicly declared him a hero because the left in Wisconsin threw an absurdly outsized fit over a few rather moderate reforms. Its of course commendable that he stuck to these reforms, but he also declared that Wisconsin wont become a “Right to Work” state under his leadership. This puts him well to the left of whole bunch of other GOP Govs, even without mentioning his position on amnesty.

Pretty much any governor running in 2016 will use this line on Rubio, Cruz, and Paul: “We’ve just had a first term senator get elevated to the presidency, and look how well that turned out.”

I once read that every Senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. That’s why, no matter how much I love Ted Cruz, I am hoping that a good, solid, decently-conservative governor will run in 2016.

Despite some policy differences, I like Walker. He has fire in the belly and the cojones to go against some pretty powerful interests.

I also would like Martinez, Haley, or Jindal to discard the “old white guy” reputation of the GOP.

I’d even support my governor, Perry. His being in a constitutionally weak governorship has given him the ability to be a cheerleader for a lot of conservative ideas. Also, I’d like to see another Texas governor elected just to put a thumb in the eye of the elites on both sides of the aisle.

I like Scott Walker, but I also think that he is the most overrated potential candidate for 2016.
Valkyriepundit on November 17, 2013 at 5:26 PM

I agree with the sentiment above. I’d like to see Scott Walker focus on staying strong in WI and eventually making WI at Right-to-Work state.
I’ve grown to like Gov. Mike Huckabee more and more. I didn’t much care for him when he ran before, but think he’s improved as a communicator since hosting his show on Fox.

..o.t.: Hey Jazz, you trundle the corridors of power over there at Hot Gas. Can you promote this post to the left side of the ledger and bury that obnoxious picture of the socialist city councilwomenses?

More executive experience could have led to a better healthcare website. I would not want a conservative President who screws up as badly on the execution of his signature issue.

Mister Mets

Right….because the website is what’s wrong with Obamacare, lol. Like Mimzey said, it’s ain’t his lack of experience that is the problem. It’s what he believes that is the problem. Obamacare wouldn’t be a good law if only he had been a governor first.

More executive experience could have led to a better healthcare website. I would not want a conservative President who screws up as badly on the execution of his signature issue.

Mister Mets on November 17, 2013 at 5:52 PM

That would be true if it was a legitimate screw up.

I happen to think that it was a conscious plan to divert massive amounts of money to be able to flood the progressive agenda and it’s candidates for the mid term and election of 2016.
Hundreds of millions of dollars for a website and it’s implementation??? Really?
Where did the money go? Who’s hands did it pass thru? Where is it now?

I have to wonder about the sanity of anyone who would want to run and possibly ‘win’ so they will be left holding the bag when this deck of cards comes crashing down since I’m convinced the evil Fed will continue to prop us up until a ‘conservative’ is in the White House. /negative nelly.

I could care less as to whether or not they’re a governor or a senator. The two senators we’ve had in living memory of Kennedy and Obama have been bad not because they were senators, but because they were liberals.

Give me a conservative. Focus on their policy proposals, focus on their record, focus on their ideological coherence, focus on their rhetorical skill and charm, and forget the particular branch of government from which they come.

I like Scott Walker, but I also think that he is the most overrated potential candidate for 2016.

Valkyriepundit

Other than Reagan, the state has gone democrat in every presidential election since 1976. The idea that a conservative is going to come out of that state is laughable. It makes about as much sense as expecting one out of Massachusetts or New Jersey.

He’s also a flip flopper on amnesty. So much for standing up to powerful interests like someone posted earlier.

A governor would definitely make sense. The country not only thinks Congress is utterly worthless at this point, but many people just seem to loathe all things and people Washington.

Little wonder approval ratings for Congress are in single digits, and voters are suspicious of big government. The Republicans have an opportunity to capitalize on that sentiment, not that the base is rooting for the Party to succeed. Bernie Goldberg has it right–it isn’t the moderates or establishment types who are the RINOs, it’s the rightwing purity brigade. As they will hasten to remind you, they aren’t Republicans, they are conservatives.

As promising, likeable and effective-soon-enough as they all are, IMO there’s no reason at all for the GOP to nominate any of the three Fab Frosh Rubio, Paul or Cruz as POTUS in 2016.

None of them yet have a degree of experience and list of accomplishments that I’m satisfied with to qualify as legit candidates. Sen Paul in particular. The dude never held elective office of any kind or managed an organization bigger than an eye doctor’s office until 2011.

Have we not already seen in the person of President Obama what an unaccomplished, inexperienced, unqualified Freshman Senator with almost nothing in the way of relevant life experiences can do to screw the country up??? I’m not saying Sen Paul is equal to the madman Obama, but he is similarly unqualified and until a couple years ago, practically unknown due to never having done anything POTUS-worthy.

Of the three Diaper Dandies, Sen. Cruz comes closest but there’s something about his “I know more than you and you’re not morally strong or mentally tough enough because of it” attitude that grates on me and I don’t think sections of the voting public needed to win the Presidency much like it either.

Yes, he’s very very smart. But the smartest legislator in the room should also if possible be among the most humble and circumspect. However, if Senator Cruz can somehow manage and/or experience an “Alvin York gets zapped by lightning” moment, watch out.

The only members of Congress I’d happily support won’t run, including my favorite, Senator Jeff Sessions. I’d also probably but less enthusiastically back Sen Thune.

But my preference at the juncture of November and 2013 is for a second-term Governor whose sole purposes as President will be:

He’s right. The President is essentially a CEO and purely legislative experience is about being part of a herd, not a leader. It doesn’t have to be Scott Walker. Rick Perry is pretty interested, I’m sure. You can find flaws in anybody who has had to run a state, but that’s because he/she can’t blame it on someone else when he screws up.

If Walker comes out against amnesty, for the 2nd Amendment, full repeal of O-Care, pulling back the Overton Window a little back, and pays some f’in respect to the Constitution along with trimming back on the foreign policy and push prudence there, he can win and start the long decades journey back to prudent right of center, common sense government.

Possibly Walker rallying cry is:
Washington is the enemy, and I’ll take it to them!

I sent Walker a small donation for his fight against the recall. It turns out his campaign drones are more annoying than AARP. I have been deluged with mail requests for more MUNEE and three times had a phone call for more MUNEE. I have explained that I have no interest in sending MUNEE to the Gov. of WI as I live in RI and they should save their MUNEE for other things and get me off the donor list. I got another mailing this past week!

Why not pick someone who has conservative principles and is not afraid to implement them? Someone who can articulate his/her positions in a ways the voters can understand. Someone who is
not afraid of the opposition including the lamestream media.
Someone with smarts who can see through the bs from all sides.
And some small business experience and expertise would be helpful.

I agree with the sentiment above. I’d like to see Scott Walker focus on staying strong in WI and eventually making WI at Right-to-Work state.
I’ve grown to like Gov. Mike Huckabee more and more. I didn’t much care for him when he ran before, but think he’s improved as a communicator since hosting his show on Fox.

I want to vote for someone who is right on the issues and is strong enough to hold those positions. I don’t care what his experience is or isn’t. Someone with the right experience in office but squishy on the issues is worthless.

I sent Walker a small donation for his fight against the recall. It turns out his campaign drones are more annoying than AARP. I have been deluged with mail requests for more MUNEE and three times had a phone call for more MUNEE.

“I think it’s got to be an outsider. I think both the presidential and the vice presidential nominee should either be a former or current governor, people who have done successful things in their states, who have taken on big reforms, who are ready to move America forward,” Walker responded when asked by Karl to describe the “ideal Republican presidential candidate in 2016.”

During the interview in Madison, Wis., Karl asked the governor specifically about Rubio, Cruz and Paul. Walker implied they were all too closely associated with the Beltway to be the ideal nominee.

“All good guys, but … it’s got to be somebody who’s viewed as being exceptionally removed from Washington,” the Wisconsin governor said.

He’s wrong though. The only candidate Team Red can run and win is Condoleeza Rice. She checks off the boxes in the identity politics game to make her competitive for the low-info votes, her competence make her tolerable for Republicans. She would be a DC Rino, and don’t hold your breath for her to reign in the behemoth and cut government. But, she’s a far better candidate than Mccain or Flopney. And she’ll be going up against Hilary Clinton, who is the anti-Condi. Hilary is a massively incompetent corrupt hag who makes nanny Bloomerg look like a moral nihilist.

If Bammy is bad, Hilary is that bad, and worse. Bammy, Biden, Pelosi, and DWS rolled into one. Except at least Bammy is bored by his job and would rather watch NCAA basketball (thats a very good thing, given his administration’s agenda). At least Biden is amusing. Pelosi and DWS, there is no redeeming qualities there… And under Hilary they’d be certain to have powerful cabinet positions. Condi is the only way to beat Hilary and Fauxcahontas.

In recent weeks, special prosecutor Francis Schmitz has hit dozens of conservative groups with subpoenas demanding documents related to the 2011 and 2012 campaigns to recall Governor Walker and state legislative leaders…